Bob Brunning
Bob Brunning, born 29 June 1943; died 18 October 2011 Bob Brunning, a founder member of Fleetwood Mac and a stalwart of the British blues scene for five decades, has died after a heart attack aged 68. Brunning played with the group Savoy Brown and for many years led his own bands, often supporting visiting American musicians, while holding down a day job as a teacher. He grew up in Bournemouth, where he took up the bass guitar. He played with various local groups, including one led by the future Radio 1 disc jockey Tony Blackburn. In 1963 he moved to London to train as a teacher at the College of St Mark and St John ("Marjon") in Chelsea. There, he joined a college group, Five's Company, whose keyboards player was Steve Jones, later a radio presenter. The group had a "thoroughly good time", Brunning later said, and made three singles for Pye Records. None was commercially successful. When its members graduated, Five's Company split up. Brunning answered an advertisement for a bass player in Melody Maker. He later described going for an audition where "I was greeted by a guy who introduced himself as Peter Green. I said to him: 'You've certainly got the right name for a blues guitarist. Do you know about your namesake, who plays with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers?' 'You bloody idiot,' he said, 'I am Peter Green.'" Despite this faux pas, Brunning got the job, joining Green's Fleetwood Mac. The band made its debut at the 1967 National Jazz and Blues festival at Windsor, after which the group took up a residency at the Marquee Club in Soho. But Brunning was asked to leave three months later when Green and the drummer Mick Fleetwood's former colleague John McVie was persuaded to leave Mayall's band to join Fleetwood Mac. Undaunted, Brunning moved on to a rival group, the Savoy Brown Blues Band (later known as Savoy Brown), who ran a blues club at the Nag's Head pub in Battersea, south London. His sojourn with this band was equally brief. This time, the parting of ways was caused by arguments over money. His split from Savoy Brown convinced Brunning that he needed a regular job as insurance against the vagaries of the music business. He found one at a primary school in Pimlico and was to stay in the profession for 30 years, retiring in 1999 as a headteacher. In the 1970s, he remained active in the British blues scene, forming and leading bands as well as accompanying numerous American musicians, many of whom appeared on the American Blues Legends tours organised by the Birmingham promoter Jim Simpson. Sometimes he would return to London in the middle of the night after a show in the north of England and grab a few hours' sleep before the school day began. Among Brunning's associates in the south London blues scene were the singer and guitarist Jo Ann Kelly, her guitarist brother Dave, and the pianist and patent agent Bob Hall. With Hall, Bob founded the Brunning Sunflower Blues Band, which made four albums between 1968 and 1970. He next organised a recording group, Tramp, with the Kellys and Hall plus guest appearances from the Fleetwood Mac members Danny Kirwan and Mick Fleetwood. In 1981 Hall and Brunning returned to live performance as the De Luxe Blues Band, with Danny Adler on guitar and Mickey Waller on drums. The group was formed to back the American blues artists Eddie Clearwater and Carey Bell at a show in London, but the quartet stayed together for more than a decade, adding Dick Heckstall-Smith on saxophones. The band made five albums and toured Europe frequently during school holidays. In the 1980s, Brunning branched out as an author. His first book, Blues: The British Connection (1986), was informed by his firsthand experience of the scene and remains the definitive guide to the genre. He also profiled Fleetwood Mac in two books, which were updated regularly. Brunning capitalised on his teaching experience by writing a series of books on popular music for children, published under the rubric Sound Trackers by Heinemann. He continued to perform regularly, ran a Sunday nightclub, BB's, in south London, and issued CDs on his own record label. Always loyal to Fleetwood Mac, he even played occasionally with Fleetwood Bac, a well-regarded tribute band. Brunning was survived by his wife, Halina, three children and six grandchildren.